Burbank Water and Power
Designing for the Community That Owns It
Burbank Water and Power is a community-owned utility with a simple but important mission: keep its customer-owners informed, protected, and empowered. Over the course of our partnership, we have supported that mission across every channel, from a quarterly newsletter that lands on thousands of doorsteps to social media campaigns that meet residents where they are. Whether the goal is explaining a complex rebate program, helping families through financial hardship, or protecting homeowners from solar fraud, we bring the same approach to every project: make it clear, make it human, and make it worth reading.
Newsletter & Communications
Currents Newsletter
Burbank Water and Power is a community-owned utility, and keeping their customer-owners informed is central to everything they do. Their quarterly Currents newsletter delivers timely articles, program updates, and community news to thousands of Burbank households. We have been part of that effort from the beginning, helping shape how the newsletter looks, reads, and tells its stories issue after issue
We Can Help
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Burbank hard, BWP needed to do more than report the news. They needed to be a resource. This issue of Currents was built around a single mission: letting residents know that help was available. From the cover’s watercolor illustration conveying empathy and calm to the inside spreads detailing the COVID-19 Job Loss Bill Credit Program, financial assistance resources, and an EV Buyer’s Guide, every page was designed to feel supportive rather than clinical. This was the newsletter doing what it does best, meeting the community exactly where it was.
Developing an illustration style
Burbank came to us with a handful of existing illustrated assets that suggested a style, but for the purposes of enhancing the storytelling in their quarterly Currents newsletter, we needed to find a way to adapt and expand on these assets. Shapes were kept clean with flat colors, with the addition of two-tone hue applications to provide depth to the palette and dimension to the illustrations. These and a few other simple rules allowed us to create and expand on an illustration set that is modern with a hint of mid-century influence, and is adaptable to both flat and isometric perspectives, giving us the freedom to apply the illustration style to solving different communication needs based on the content of each issue of the newsletter.
Telling Complicated Stories
For Burbank’s Annual Water Quality Report, we were given the challenge of telling the story of how the city gets its water. This complex process had to be made into something easily digestible for the newsletter’s readers. We went through multiple rounds with a copywriter, the client, and experts to create an infographic that explained where the water comes from and how it is processed.
Creative Program Campaigns
More Than Assets. Every Channel, One Voice.
Every BWP program campaign starts with a problem to solve and a resident to reach. We develop the full creative foundation, from the campaign concept and messaging strategy to taglines, imagery, and tone, and then build it out across every channel it needs to live on. Social media, digital ads, direct mail, print. Each campaign works as a unified system so that whether a resident sees it in their inbox, their mailbox, or their feed, the message lands the same way.
The Right Message Before the Wrong Season
Direct Mail · Digital Advertising
The “AC Replace It Before It Breaks” campaign needed to reach residents before the summer rush, not after their system failed. We created a campaign system that worked across direct mail and digital, using a light touch of humor to grab attention and a clear rebate offer to drive action. Every piece pointed back to the same message: don’t wait until it breaks.
We Find the Human Part
When BWP expanded its billing assistance program during COVID-19, the message needed to feel personal, not bureaucratic. We built a campaign around continuous line illustrations of real family moments, paired with copy that spoke directly to the emotional weight of the situation. Multiple variations ran across social media and direct mail so every household type saw themselves in the message.
Animation
Animated by Community
Some stories are better told in motion. For BWP we developed a custom illustration style rooted in Burbank's distinct character, its neighborhoods, its people, and the infrastructure that keeps the city running every day. That visual world became the foundation for two animated productions. One tackles one of the toughest communication challenges a utility faces: explaining why rates need to go up, told through scenes of the real work BWP does behind the scenes for the community. The other takes that same Burbank world somewhere unexpected, a custom animated holiday piece set to Jingle Bells that gave BWP a warm and memorable way to connect with residents during the holiday season. Same community, same characters, two very different conversations.